Do It Today: Overcome Procrastination, Improve Productivity, and Achieve More Meaningful Things

Not Writing Things Down
Yeah, yeah, you have the memory of an elephant. Or you’re
so smart that you remember everything, right?
WRONG. Not writing down your thoughts, ideas, tasks, etc,
is stupid. Why? Because you’re wasting a lot of brain power
when you rely on your memory. When you write everything
down, you can use your brainpower for other things. Like
solving problems. That’s actually useful and advances your
career.
If you journal, that’s even better. But I’ve found that not
everyone likes the idea of journaling. So let’s just call it
“writing things down.” What did you write down while you’re
reading this article?
Being Hard On Yourself
“I suck!” No, you don’t.

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“Why?” You got out of bed this morning, right?
“Yeah.” Congratulations. You survived this hard thing called
LIFE. Be proud of yourself. Everything you do after getting
out of bed is a win.
Neglecting Your Personal Education
“Woohoo! I finished college. Goodbye lame old books!”
If that was you, no matter how long ago, you DO suck. Who
learns one thing and stops forever? I don’t even know why
we have that idea planted in our brain. I always thought that
learning stops when you get out of school. But the truth is:
Your 
life
stops when learning stops.
Invest in yourself. Learn something. Read books. Get
courses. Watch videos. Do it from home or go places. It
doesn’t matter. Just learn new things. You’ll be more
productive and more excited about life.
Hating Rules
I saved the best for last. Most people hate rules, right? It
starts when we’re kids. “Why do I have to do this? Why do I
have to do that?” Because it’s better for you! That’s why!
(you weird kid) But when we’re adults, we don’t have to
follow the rules (other than actual rules set by the
government, but you get what I’m talking about.)
“Rules are dumb!”
That’s what I always believed. I thought I was a maverick.
But I was an idiot. Rules are actually THE BEST thing about
life. Without rules, we would be hotdog eating pigs right
now.
And when it comes to productivity, the first rule is: Have
rules. If you want to live without rules, go ahead. But life is
not Fight Club. Rules actually help us to solve problems and
get the most out of life.

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Josh Weltman, an advertising creative director for 25+
years, and the co-producer of 
Mad Men
, put it well in his
book 
Seducing Strangers
:
“Solving a problem requires a weird combination of freedom
and constraint. Whenever I hear “Just have fun with it” or
“Think outside the box,” I know from experience that things
are about to turn into a colossal waste of time.”